David Cameron delighted his backbenchers with a pledge to fight the next election as a eurosceptic party

David Cameron has promised the Tories will fight the 2015 general election as an anti-Europe party in a bid to see off the threat of UKIP.

The Prime Minister delighted Conservative MPs last night when he pledged he will fight for his first overall majority from a ‘clear Eurosceptic position’.

Some senior Tories have been spooked by the surge in support for the UK Independence Party – up to third in several opinion polls – which has galvanised calls for the PM to take a tougher line on Brussels.

The Prime Minister told a meeting of Tory backbenchers last night: 'I want you all to be absolutely clear - we will go into the next election with a clear Eurosceptic position.'

The move to put Europe at the centre of his bid for re-election marks a major shift from when Mr Cameron first became Tory leader, and told his party to stop ‘banging on about Europe’.

Mr Cameron is expected to use January’s landmark speech to set out areas of policy controlled by the EU that he believes could be repatriated to Britain, before offering a referendum on a ‘fresh settlement’.